Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have a problem with closing a case without naming a perpetrator or finding remnants of his parachute. Perhaps years from now someone will find conclusive evidence of who did it.
I have a problem with closing a case without naming a perpetrator or finding remnants of his parachute. Perhaps years from now someone will find conclusive evidence of who did it.
Cases are routinely closed for lack of leads, usually a lot sooner than this. If new information comes to light the case can be reopened at any time. Closing the case simply means they are not going to continue to investigate it. If years from now, someone finds conclusive evidence, it's not going to make a lot of difference anyway. Since DB Cooper won't be around at that time. He got away with it, and the FBI has now acknowledged that fact.
...which further complicates the case of him dying on impact.
3 stacks of cash were found buried on the riverbank together in one spot. No other bills/fragments of bills/other fragments such as clothes, backpack, chute, etc were found at the site. One stack of bills had $200 missing (10 $20 bills missing).
1. These 3 stacks are the only items found. Since no other items/fragments were found at the site, it is assumed they were "carried" and "deposited" there separately from the presumed DB Cooper impact site.
2. If these stacks were washed up freely by the river and buried, or if he dropped them during his jump, why were the stacks still together in one location?
3. If 10 bills were missing from the stack that was rubber banded, presumably whatever natural cause deposited the bills at the site was violent enough to rip apart those 10 bills never to be seen again. If that is the case, how come those 3 separate stacks of bills were neatly deposited together in a single spot?
4. No other bills/stacks were found at the site or washed up further downriver. How were these 3 stacks separated together from the main cash backpack presumably at the crash site? I find the claim that 3 separate stacks of cash separating in midair, falling into the river, and being deposited on a riverbank all together highly suspect.
2. I believe the money was dredged up with sand that was deposited on Tena Bar in 1974. The rest of the money likely broke apart in the operation and floated away, or is still on the bottom of the river.
3. I believe that DB Cooper removed some of the bills before jumping. I don't believe that 3 separate stacks of bills were neatly deposited together in a single spot. They were found buried in the sand in the same general area on the Tena Bar, where they were deposited by the dredging operation, in 1974.
Aw, man, far out! I can finally start spending some of this money...
Seriously, the man is long dead. Not one of those bills ever found its way into circulation. There's no way someone steals 200K and lives almost a half century without spending a dime of it. He didn't survive the jump, and at this point his body will never be found.
Talk show host Lars Larson claims it's McCoy, and that McCoy visited Vegas on more than one occasion, and gambled/laundered the money there.
What I don't get is, IF Larson is correct, why wasn't the currency detected? (As far as I am aware, he has never addressed this and the issue has not been raised to him.)
2. I believe the money was dredged up with sand that was deposited on Tena Bar in 1974. The rest of the money likely broke apart in the operation and floated away, or is still on the bottom of the river.
3. I believe that DB Cooper removed some of the bills before jumping. I don't believe that 3 separate stacks of bills were neatly deposited together in a single spot. They were found buried in the sand in the same general area on the Tena Bar, where they were deposited by the dredging operation, in 1974.
4. Same answer as #2.
Bolded not true. All 3 stacks were found by a little boy in 1980, digging in one spot. They were not scattered or found "in general area" on the Tena Bar, but in one single location, all 3 stacks. The bills were rubber banded, but the stacks were separate. This pretty much rules out the money was dropped in midair. If the stacks were together, the only explanation is that they were deposited while being on ground level, either by DB Cooper impact or falling out of the bag as the bag was being transported.
If as you say, the dredging operation uncovered the 3 stacks, that means the presumed DB Cooper impact site was directly in and around the river where the dredging took place. Which was obviously the main hypothesis of the FBI at the time. So how come when FBI (and others) combed through the area they found nothing else? No parachute, no straps, no other bills, no shoes, etc. etc.? Remember, he had a lot of cash on him, 10,000 bills, parachute gear, cords to tie stuff up, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by freemkt
What I don't get is, IF Larson is correct, why wasn't the currency detected? (As far as I am aware, he has never addressed this and the issue has not been raised to him.)
Remember, Cooper most likely knew that they gave him bait money (it was certainly public knowledge). If he survived, he wouldn't just go and spend it.
Another thing, out of all the copy cat hijackings (hijack a plane, get ransom money, jump out of the plane with a parachute) none of the perpetrators died on impact... We know this because all of them were caught alive eventually.
Bolded not true. All 3 stacks were found by a little boy in 1980, digging in one spot. They were not scattered or found "in general area" on the Tena Bar, but in one single location, all 3 stacks. The bills were rubber banded, but the stacks were separate. This pretty much rules out the money was dropped in midair. If the stacks were together, the only explanation is that they were deposited while being on ground level, either by DB Cooper impact or falling out of the bag as the bag was being transported.
If as you say, the dredging operation uncovered the 3 stacks, that means the presumed DB Cooper impact site was directly in and around the river where the dredging took place. Which was obviously the main hypothesis of the FBI at the time. So how come when FBI (and others) combed through the area they found nothing else? No parachute, no straps, no other bills, no shoes, etc. etc.? Remember, he had a lot of cash on him, 10,000 bills, parachute gear, cords to tie stuff up, etc.
The exact position of the money was never documented. All we know is that it was found by the kid while digging in the sand. It was not in neat stacks. But it is reasonable to conclude that it was generally together, but badly deteriorated.
Second point, that does not mean that at all. The only logical site for DB Cooper's impact would have been in the Columbia River, right under the flight path, near Vancouver Washington. Cooper's body along with the money would have then drifted down the river, until it ended up on the bottom of the river near the Tena Bar. Where it would have rested until being disturbed by the dredging operation. The other items you mentioned are either still in the river, undiscovered in sand and mud on the river banks, or completely disintegrated.
I have a problem with closing a case without naming a perpetrator or finding remnants of his parachute. Perhaps years from now someone will find conclusive evidence of who did it.
I can see not finding the body but the parachute? How would a colorful parachute the size of a big tent disappear?
Remember, Cooper most likely knew that they gave him bait money (it was certainly public knowledge). If he survived, he wouldn't just go and spend it.
So what did he do with it? What was the point if he was going to live his entire life without ever spending a penny of it? He could have just stayed home and watched Johnny Carson that night, and saved himself a lot of trouble.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gantz
Another thing, out of all the copy cat hijackings (hijack a plane, get ransom money, jump out of the plane with a parachute) none of the perpetrators died on impact... We know this because all of them were caught alive eventually.
Sure, but how many of them jumped out in the middle of the night over one of the most rugged and unforgiving mountain ranges in North America?
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyRider
You mean to tell me somebody is still sitting in an office at the Federal Reserve looking for DB Cooper bills?
Sort of - only it's not a somebody, it's a computer. Whenever a bank determines that a bill is so worn out it needs to be taken out of circulation, it's sent to the Federal Reserve Bank to be destroyed. At that point, the serial number is noted and recorded. Every DB Cooper bill is redflagged - if the serial number shows up, they'll know it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyRider
I can see not finding the body but the parachute? How would a colorful parachute the size of a big tent disappear?
You ever been in that area? The terrain where he went out is literally some of the harshest, most rugged, and most completely unforgiving in the entire United States. Rough, rocky mountainsides at 45-degree angles, covered with a canopy of 100+ foot tall 2nd-growth douglas firs and cedar groves. There are very few roads, and even fewer people marching around in the woods. Anything that did come down in those woods more than a hundred yards from one of those logging roads could be there for decades before someone walked close enough to see it, and it would only take a few years for it to get covered up with pine needles, duff, moss, and fallen branches.
And that's assuming the chute even opened - there's no guarantee that it did. If it didn't, he'd have had to come down right in the middle of a road for anyone to have found him.
...which further complicates the case of him dying on impact.
3 stacks of cash were found buried on the riverbank together in one spot. No other bills/fragments of bills/other fragments such as clothes, backpack, chute, etc were found at the site. One stack of bills had $200 missing (10 $20 bills missing).
1. These 3 stacks are the only items found. Since no other items/fragments were found at the site, it is assumed they were "carried" and "deposited" there separately from the presumed DB Cooper impact site.
2. If these stacks were washed up freely by the river and buried, or if he dropped them during his jump, why were the stacks still together in one location?
3. If 10 bills were missing from the stack that was rubber banded, presumably whatever natural cause deposited the bills at the site was violent enough to rip apart those 10 bills never to be seen again. If that is the case, how come those 3 separate stacks of bills were neatly deposited together in a single spot?
4. No other bills/stacks were found at the site or washed up further downriver. How were these 3 stacks separated together from the main cash backpack presumably at the crash site? I find the claim that 3 separate stacks of cash separating in midair, falling into the river, and being deposited on a riverbank all together highly suspect.
It is certainly interesting that the money was still in 3 bundles and even more so that the bundles were found together.
The words of Brian Ingram, the 8 year old who found the bundles of money at Tina Bar :
“We were going to make a fire along the river bank. I was on my hands and knees smoothing out the sand with my right arm, and I uncovered three bundles of money just below the surface."
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
